The UN is stepping up efforts to end the deadlock over how to try those suspected of killing former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is sending his top legal adviser to the country next week. Mr Hariri and 22 others were killed in a massive bomb explosion in Beirut on 14 February 2005. Lebanon's current prime minister backs plans for an international tribunal but his pro-Syrian opponents do not. Nicholas Michel, the UN's top legal adviser, will visit Lebanon on Tuesday to try to help the rival parties find common ground over proposals to set up an international tribunal. "We simply want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to share his or her proposals, and make sure that at the end we have a broad support in the country for the establishment of the tribunal," he said. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

A NATO soldier died in combat in Afghanistan on Friday, a day after two were killed by roadside bombs, bringing the number of foreign troop deaths this week to 12 -- one of the bloodiest weeks for foreign forces in months.The soldier died in a gunbattle in the south, but under a new NATO policy the alliance refused to say where because that could identify the nationality of the victim before the relevant government makes an announcement.On Thursday, two NATO soldiers were killed in separate roadside bombings in the east, NATO said in a statement, without saying where, and a helicopter chartered by the U.S.-led coalition crash-landed due to technical problems southwest of Kabul.At the crash site in Ghazni province, rescuers came under fire from suspected Taliban fighters. ...http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldnews&storyID=2007-04-13T225708Z_01_ISL213969_RTRUKOC_0_US-AFGHAN-VIOLENCE.xml

Baghdad, like a popular TV series, has its own crime scene investigation team, which is advised by a British detective. But the war-zone CSI work is so dangerous and the caseload so overwhelming that just 5 percent of bombings, kidnappings and shootings are investigated, with police unable to spend more than 20 minutes at a given crime scene. British Detective Sgt. Bob Lamburne often sees more homicides in one day than characters on the television dramas do in an entire season. "At the scene of a bomb blast in America or Britain, you might get several days to cordon off the scene and investigate; but here you may have only 20 minutes or so because of the danger of being at the crime scene," said Sgt. Lamburne, 53, who has also worked as a war crimes investigator in the Balkans. ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20070414-122240-2069r.htm

The Bush administration asked Congress Friday to allow monitoring of more foreigners in the United States during intelligence investigations. The plan is one of several proposed changes, which have been in the works for more than a year, that go to the heart of a key U.S. surveillance law. The administration says the changes are intended to help the government better address national security threats by updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to bring it into line with rapid changes in communications technology. Civil liberties groups see the government's effort as a needless power grab. The proposal would revise the way the government gets warrants from the secretive FISA court to investigate suspected terrorists, spies and other national security threats. If you think this will apply only to foreigners, you are a good candidate to buy a Bridge I just happen to have for sale ...http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_on_go_pr_wh/intelligence_powers

With a showdown coming between the White House and Congress over funding for the war in Iraq, the Pentagon has tried to raise the ante by threatening to raid the Air Force and Navy personnel budgets to help cover Army operating costs. The transfer of $800 million from each the Air Force and Navy into the Army operating budget is aimed at giving the Bush administration and congressional leaders more time to work out a compromise over $105 billion in emergency funding to cover war-related expenses for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The main obstacle is language — insisted upon by Democratic leaders in Congress — that would set a timetable for withdrawing most U.S. troops from Iraq. If Congress approved the money shift, the Air Force and Navy could have to delay reassignment moves, withhold or reduce bonuses and incentive pays, and delay promotions so the Army could continuing carrying out military operations, congressional aides said. ...http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/04/military_supplemental_funding_070412w/

Administration officials will advise President George W. Bush to veto legislation requiring him to provide lawmakers with details of the CIA's secret prisons for terrorism suspects, a White House statement said. The disclosure provisions are included in proposed Senate legislation that would set new requirements for giving lawmakers access to intelligence reports and set intelligence program funding for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. The Bush administration objected to the disclosure requirements, saying, ``Such matters are appropriately left to sensitive handling in the normal course between the intelligence committee and the executive branch.'' Democrats and Republicans have put increasing pressure on Bush to give them information on intelligence matters after media reports that inmates were being tortured in the secret prisons and that the National Security Agency had a program that conducts surveillance without court warrants. ...http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=ai94tdsY_sCI#